Cross-Cultural Communication Vol. 11, No. 9, 2015, pp. 24-28 DOI:10.3968/7523 ISSN 1712-8358[Print] ISSN 1923-6700[Online] www.cscanada.net www.cscanada.org The Statistical Analysis of the Influence of Chinese Mathematical Journals Cited by Journal Citation Reports DONG Xiao [a] ; ZHANG Shiqiang [a],* [a] Medical Information College, Chongqing Medical University, China. * Corresponding author. Received 14 June 2015; accepted 17 July 2015 Published online 26 September 2015 Abstract According to journal citation report published by ISI, the article systematically analyses the basic indexes of eight Chinese mathematical journals, including the impact factor, article, total cites, immediacy index, eigenfactor score and article influence score. Then compares them with the indexes of the top 8 mathematical journals from JCR to find the gap and the way of improving. Key words: Mathematical journal; JCR; Quantitative index; Statistical analysis Dong, X., & Zhang, S. Q. (2015). The Statistical Analysis of the Influence of Chinese Mathematical Journals Cited by Journal Citation Reports. Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(9), 24-28. Available from: http//www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/view/7523 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/7523 INTRODUCTION As we all know Science and technology are primary productive force, science and technology act as a very important reason for the fast developing economy. And the global influence of science and technology journals can reflect a country s scientific and technological strength and level well. So we should endeavor to improve the quality of our science and technology journals and enhance their global influence, promote the development of science and technology in our country from the side. This article compares the basic indexes of eight Chinese mathematical journals and the top 8 mathematical journals based on JCR to make a quantitative analysis and objective evaluation on the influence of Chinese mathematical journals and provide the basis for further improvement. 1. DATA COLLECTION Journal Citation Reports published by the institute for scientific information is known as the most authoritative journal evaluation system. Open web of science, enter JCR database, set the time to 2013, search by country/territory, select Peoples R China, then we can get the data of 162 Chinese journals. Back to start, search by mathematics, then we can get the data of 302 mathematical journals. After comparing, we can get the data of Chinese mathematical journals cited by JCR in 2013. And we can also get the data of the top 8 mathematical journals. 2. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 2.1 Comprehensive Description of Basic Statistics Table 1 shows the basic indexes of eight Chinese mathematical journals and the top 8 mathematical journals, including the impact factor, article, total cites, immediacy index, eigenfactor score and article influence score. And it also shows the average of the basic indexes of all the 302 mathematical journals after a simple calculation. The indexes of the top 8 mathematical journals represent the international advanced level and the average of the indexes of all the 302 mathematical journals represent international average. After comparing, we can find among the indexes of our journals only article is above the international average while the rest indexes are below the international average, which means there is a bigger gap between the indexes of our journals and the top 8 mathematical journals. As to influence, one of the indexes, the influence of the top 8 mathematical journals is eight times of ours and when it comes to average cites, it s fifteen times. 24
DONG Xiao; ZHANG Shiqiang (2015). Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(9), 24-28 We can see our journals contain a large number of articles, but the quality and international influence of the articles are not high enough which still need to be improved. Table 1 The Data of 8 Chinese Mathematical Journals and the Top 8 Mathematical Journals and the Average of All the 302 Mathematical Journals Title Rank (by IF) Total Cites IF 5-year IF Immediacy Index Articles Eigenfactor Score Article Influence Score Average Cites Self-cited Rate J COMPUT 41 815 1.049 1.345 0.056 36 0.00348 0.912 22.64 3.31 NUMER - THEORY ME 79 119 0.767 0.837 0.182 33 0.00128 0.568 3.61 3.36 SCI CHINA 89 475 0.71 0.686 0.107 196 0.00598 0.553 2.42 15.16 ACTA SCI 136 593 0.62 0.509 0.056 144 0.00314 0.235 4.12 10.96 FRONT CHINA 205 204 0.452 0.555 0.265 83 0.002 0.427 2.46 10.29 ACTA SIN 225 1297 0.419 0.505 0.082 184 0.00494 0.318 7.05 5.71 CHINESE ANN B 265 405 0.316 0.528 0.055 55 0.00251 0.497 7.36 3.46 ALGEBR COLLOQ 275 300 0.272 0.28 0.06 67 0.00128 0.194 4.48 10 Average 526 0.5756 0.656 0.1079 99.75 0.003076 0.463 6.77 7.78125 COMMUN PUR APPL 1 6904 3.08 3.373 0.708 48 0.01627 4.283 143.83 1.26 J AM SOC 2 2398 3.061 3.713 0.655 29 0.01966 6.781 82.69 0.5 ACTA - DJURSHOLM 3 3096 3.033 4.185 0.765 17 0.00811 7.489 182.12 0.45 ANN 4 8926 2.822 3.478 0.816 49 0.03753 6.155 182.16 0.91 FIXED POINT THEORY A FOUND COMPUT 5 2320 2.486 2.453 0.886 315 0.00503 0.42 7.37 3.84 6 706 2.152 3.423 0.516 31 0.00717 3.5 22.77 3.54 INVENT 7 7060 2.123 2.783 0.6 60 0.02698 5.326 117.67 2.03 MEM AM SOC 8 2069 1.782 2.44 0.296 27 0.00831 3.538 76.67 0.77 Average(1-8) 4184.88 2.567 3.231 0.6553 72 0.01613 4.687 101.91 1.6625 Average(1-302) 1168.45 0.674 0.795 0.162 83.4482 0.0051 0.95 14 2.2 Influence Factor Analysis From the combination of Table 1 and Table 2 we can see, the impact factor of our journals is not very high, the average is just 0.5756 which can not reach the international average 0.6744. The highest rank of our journals is 41. The average of the top 8 mathematical Table 2 The Rank of Eight Chinese Mathematical Journals in 2013 JCR Range of IF Rank Number of articles Journal and rank 3.08 IF 2 1--7 7 2>IF 1 8--45 38 J COMPUT (41) 1>IF 0.9 46--59 14 0.9>IF 0.8 60--73 14 journals is 2.5674, about five times of ours. Thus it can be seen that the general level of impact factor of eight Chinese mathematical journals is not high, there is still a big gap with the international leading journals. Also reflect the quality of the articles published in our journals is not good enough from the side. 0.8>IF 0.7 74--96 23 NUMER -THEORY ME(79) SCI CHINA (89) 0.6>IF 0.5 97--143 47 ACTA SCI(136) 0.5>IF 0.4 144--186 43 0.4>IF 0.3 187--271 38 FRONT CHINA(205) ACTA SIN(225) 0.3>IF 0.2 272-293 22 ALGEBR COLLOQ(275) 0.2>IF 0 294--302 9 25
The Statistical Analysis of the Influence of Chinese Mathematical Journals Cited by Journal Citation Reports 2.3 Self-Cited Rate Analysis Self-cited rate is the radio of total self-cited and total cites. It s a measurement index of the journal s self citation. From table 3 we can see, in 2013 SCI CHINA has the highest self-cited rate of the eight Chinese mathematical journals, and the self-cited rate of J COMPUT is the lowest. The average of self-cited rate is 7.78125%. And the self-cited rate of FIXED POINT THEORY A is the highest of the top 8 mathematical journals, the lowest is ACTA -DJURSHOLM, the average is 1.6625%. Table 3 Self-Cited Data of Eight Chinese Mathematical Journals and the Top 8 Mathematical Journals Journals Total cites Self-cited Self-cited rate(%) J COMPUT 815 27 3.31 NUMER - THEORY ME 119 4 3.36 SCI CHINA 475 72 15.16 ACTA SCI 593 65 10.96 FRONT CHINA 204 21 10.29 ACTA SIN 1297 74 5.71 CHINESE ANN B 405 14 3.46 ALGEBR COLLOQ 300 30 10 AVERAGE 526 38.375 7.78125 COMMUN PUR APPL 6904 87 1.26 J AM SOC 2392 12 0.5 ACTA - DJURSHOLM 3096 14 0.45 ANN 8926 81 0.91 FIXED POINT THEORY A 2320 891 3.84 FOUND COMPUT 706 25 3.54 INVENT 7060 143 2.03 MEM AM SOC 2069 16 0.77 Average 4184.125 158.625 1.6625 2.4 Total Cites and Average Cited Per Paper Analysis Total cites is a general concept, it refers to the total number of the papers published on the journal from founding year to assessment year. From table 1 we can see that the mean of total cites of the eight Chinese mathematical journals is 526. The mean of total cites of 302 mathematical journals is 1168.447, about two times of ours. And the mean of total cites of the 8 top mathematical journals is 4184.875, bout eight times of ours. The gap is bigger in average cited per paper. The mean of average cited per paper of the eight Chinese mathematical journals is 6.67, the international average is 14 and the international advanced level is 101.91. The big gap tells us the low international influence of our journals, but it also shows we have more room for improvement. 2.5 Average Citing Rate Per Paper, Citing Journals and Cited Journals Average citing rate per paper is the average number of references cited by each paper in a certain time. It s a radio of citing reference number and articles. From Table 4 we can know the average citing rate per paper of NUMER -THEORY ME is the highest of eight Chinese mathematical journals and that of ALGEBR COLLOQ is the lowest. The average is 21.95. As same as the top 8 mathematical journals MEM AM SOC has the highest number and FIXED POINT THEORYA has the lowest. The average is 35.8625. We can also know the average of citing journals and cited journals of eight Chinese mathematical journals are 253 and 77.5. But the two numbers of the top 8 mathematical journals are 204.625 and 318.25. The gap of these numbers reflects low quality and international influence of our journals. Table 4 The Citing Data of Eight Chinese Mathematical Journals and the Top 8 Mathematical Journals Journal Citing number Articles Average citing rate per paper Citing journals Cited journals J COMPUT 964 36 26.8 116 89 NUMER -THEORY ME 998 33 30.2 128 26 SCI CHINA 4742 196 24.2 476 80 ACTA SCI 2849 144 19.8 353 87 FRONT CHINA 1762 83 21.2 260 35 ACTA SIN 3286 184 17.9 404 178 CHINESE ANN B 1148 55 20.9 163 73 ALGEBR COLLOQ 981 67 14.6 124 52 Average 2091.25 99.75 21.95 253 77.5 COMMUN PUR APPL 1701 48 35.4 228 568 J AM SOC 1011 29 34.9 111 264 To be continued 26
DONG Xiao; ZHANG Shiqiang (2015). Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(9), 24-28 Continued Journal Citing number Articles Average citing rate per paper Citing journals Cited journals ACTA -DJURSHOLM 574 17 33.8 101 363 ANN 1696 49 34.6 183 524 FIXED POINT THEORY A 8454 315 26.8 497 77 FOUND COMPUT 960 31 31 128 131 INVENT 2160 60 36 205 331 MEM AM SOC 1468 27 54.4 184 288 Average 2253 72 35.8625 204.625 318.25 3. SUMMARY ANALYSIS Table 5 A Comparative Analysis Between Quantitative Indexes of 8 Chinese Mathematical Journals and the Top 8 Mathematical Journals Indexes Average of Chinese mathematical journals(a) Average of the top 8 mathematical journals(b) Proportion(B/A) Average of all the 302 mathematical journals Articles 99.75 72 0.722 83.44816 Total Cites 526 4184.875 7.96 1168.447 Impact Factor 0.655625 3.231 4.93 0.795082 Immediacy Index 0.107875 0.65525 6.074 0.162017 Self-cited Rate 7.78125 1.6625 0.214 Average Cited Per Paper 6.77 101.91 15.05 14 Average Citing Rate Per Paper 21.95 35.8625 1.634 Citing journals 253 204.625 0.809 Cited journals 77.5 318.25 4.11 Eigenfactor Score 0.003076 0.016133 5.24 0.0051 Article Influence Score 0.463 4.6865 10.12 0.9497 a) From table 1 we can see, Chinese journals only have a higher number of articles, the other indexes are all lower than that of 302 mathematical journals and even lower than that of the top 8 journals. b) The article number of the top 8 journals is 72% of eight Chinese journals, but the total cites is about 8 times higher than Chinese journals and the average cited per paper is about 15 times. This shows Chinese mathematical journals have a low international influence. c) Among 8 Chinese journals, only the impact factor of J COMPUT is above 1 which directly leads to a low average. It should be further improved. d) The average of immediacy index of Chinese mathematical journals is close to that of 302 mathematical journals, but it is one sixth of the top 8 journals. This means the quality of Chinese articles is on the international average level but is still far from the top. e) Chinese mathematical journals have a higher selfcited rate but a lower average citing rate per paper. This reflects academic closed and conservative in China. f) From the low number of eigenfactor score and article influence score we can also see that the international influence of Chinese mathematical journals is not very high and still has a large gap with the top journals. 4. SUGGESTION ON IMPROVING CHINESE JOURNALS a) Shortening publication cycle. The earlier readers learn the article contents the more probable article being cited. So shortening publication cycle contribute to increase impact factor. b) Maintaining self-cited rate on the natural level. Artificial increase or decrease self-cited rate is not conductive to the development of journal itself. c) Suggesting authors trying to use the latest articles to shorten the cited half-life. d) Accelerating the processes of internationalization. Firstly forming an editorial team with international influence; secondly training editors with international work ethics; thirdly joining global databases to improve international influence; finally cooperating with internationally famous publication group. 27
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